Description
A Family Livestock Starter Kit helps families in remote communities build reliable sources of food and income through small-scale animal husbandry. Your gift provides the tools, training, and support needed to raise livestock suited to local conditions and household capacity. This program is delivered through the Livelihoods Improvement through Food Security and Training (LIFT) initiative.
Preparing a Safe Start for Livestock
The kit begins with selecting and preparing safe spaces for livestock, including basic shelter, sanitation, and access to water. Families receive hands-on assistance to ensure animals are properly housed and protected, even in challenging environments.
Teaching Families to Care for Animals
Families are guided through animal care and feeding practices, learning how to maintain animal health, manage breeding, and prevent disease. Livestock—such as chickens, goats, or pigs—are chosen based on what thrives locally, providing a sustainable source of protein for household nutrition.
Growing Nutrition and Self-Reliance
With continued guidance, families learn how to manage livestock production and timing, allowing them to use eggs, milk, or meat for their own needs while selling surplus in nearby markets. This practical approach strengthens food security, improves nutrition, and creates ongoing income opportunities, helping families move toward long-term self-reliance.
Catalog Notice
Gifts to Food For The Poor help advance our mission to alleviate hunger, poverty, and suffering. Donations are understood to be allocated flexibly, allowing us to address the most urgent needs and sustain our operations. This flexibility enables us to respond quickly in times of crisis and maintain long-term support where it’s needed most. We are committed to being responsible stewards of your generosity, ensuring every gift has a meaningful impact on those we serve.
Why Support our new Pilot Initiative
A Mercado Global handbag isn’t just an accessory—it’s a meaningful gift that represents hope and resilience. When you shop on our website you're making the statement that poverty isn't inevitable.
Every purchase helps create a stable economic environment within impoverished communities, which can lead to food security and reduce dependency on aid. It’s an investment in breaking the cycle of poverty through fair trade practices that uplift entire communities.
Each handbag is a unique piece of art, handcrafted by skilled artisans who draw on traditional techniques passed down through generations. This supports cultural preservation while giving artisans a source of pride and financial independence.

Flora Petite Crossbody in Turf Moss

Flora Petite Clutch in Lavender Maple

Mini Lily Wristlet in Cream Soda
Handbags are ethically crafted, prioritizing fair labor practices and sustainable production. With each purchase, you’re helping prove that we can tackle poverty through sustainable community development.
Buying a Mercado Global handbag provides sustainable income for artisans in marginalized communities, directly helping them support their families. By working part-time, artisans can make up to $8 a day, which is enough to lift themselves out of poverty over the course of a few months of engagement.
By shopping with us, you’re supporting a test initiative designed to demonstrate that we can build a sustainable, closed-loop system between our micro-enterprise programs and an online marketplace. If the test is sucessful we'll be able to scale up our programs.






